RIM has stated that thier current stratgy to move forward with a new OS will remain as planned, but Heins makes sure to point out “It’s going to be continuity, but it’s not going to be a standstill.”

via [The Verge]

Let me first introduce myself by a name that most of you haven’t heard in a long time. I’m Nic Ball the “Berry Guru”. Before there was a Gadget Gurus, before there ever was an Angry Guru and much before I secured my doctorate, I was simply a blackberry junkie. I walked around with my head held down and my thumbs busy typing away on a keyboard as I weaved through pedestrian traffic. It was the best of times. The smartphone market was on in it’s early childhood. We’d finally crossed over the threshold of Windows Mobile and the world was ours to take. Then the iPhone came along and started the downward slide. Android came on the scene and it was as if all the air in the room had been let out. Now here we are only a few years later but it seems like forever ago. Now here we are, RIM, the former king of the market is now the ugly red-headed step child of smart phones. What, if anything, can RIM do to save this ship?

The most obvious problem with RIM has been the total consumerization of IT. No longer are system admins able to keep everyone on an easy to manage and easy to control system without justification for that granular control. Now days CEO’s are demanding the use of an iPhone or iPad and the notion of using a BlackBerry is quickly fading away. RIM has missed out on consumer market in belief that there would always be a rock solid business market. As this layer starts to fade away we have to look at other solutions at RIM.

Management:

Let’s start with the people steering this ship. Co-CEO’s and Co-Chairmen Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have lost touch with the pulse of consumers. Being both co-CEOs and co-Chairmen of the board they dictate the agenda and answer to no one. This and their admitted success in the industry to the point of total domination before the iPhone have lead to delusional isolationism. Just one month ago Mike Lazaridis said

“These new models will build on the incredible success of the BlackBerry Curve line and further expand the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history” and “RIM has taken a unique path and the reason why we do things might not always be obvious from the outside.”

Might not be obvious? How about ‘is clearly mind boggling.’ These two would better server as CEO where they’d have the ability to kill any ideas they didn’t like, but would also be held accountable by shareholders via the board of trustees. With the threat of being canned over their head they might be more willing to try new things.

Ecosystem:

What started out as an alternative to Flash could be the answer to solving a lot of RIMs ecosystem problems. Outside of BBM there aren’t too many applications that RIM has nailed down that anyone wants to use outside of their ecosystem. RIM doesn’t have Instagram, or FaceTime or anything else Apple ‘wows’ you with. What they do have is strong developers who create apps that you would only want and know about if you already had a BlackBerry. There’s hope that more major titles will come to BlackBerry but I think there’s an easier solution. With HTML5 a company such as Instagram would be able to make a single HTML5 app that looked beautiful on PCs, Macs, Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phone.

Think this is all crazy talk? Here are a few early examples.

• DeviantART Muro - HTML5 based sketch app
• Hootsuite - Social media dashboard
• Coolendar - Simple and ‘polished’ calendar app
• Grooveshark - Music service whose apps were pulled from iOS and Android markets

Hardware:

When it comes to deploying your own OS and hardware RIM hasn’t always been the worst but they’ve run into stagnation. Their phones all seem to be the same and look the same. When was the last time someone was asked “did you see the new blackberry?” Heck the last innovation this company made was the Storm, which was a flop for consumers and critics. Perhaps the solution is in licensing their OS out to the likes of HTC and or Samsung. Two companies who know how to make fresh and appealing hardware. Even Microsoft with all of its cash didn’t decide to make hardware on their own. Allowing another manufacture to develop hardware for them could really give a fresh start to RIM.

NFC:

NFC is currently in its infancy. Only one American device currently has it. If RIM were to commit to this new technology they could be the forefront of a new and developing market. RIM is already starting to dabble in this technology with their “BlackBerry Tag” protocol. If done right this could be the equivalent of BBM appeal. NFC door locks, car docks, nightstand dock, etc. It’s really a crazy and fun tech that could do so much for their bottom line.

PR:

Finally the first reason of hope I’ve had for this company in a very long time came from the following video from Ashley Esqueda. It was the first breath of fresh PR air I’ve whiffed in awhile from camp RIM.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
Now Ashley does two things well. She shows cleavage and seems to be genuinely excited about what she’s seen from RIM at CES. RIM basically we need more excitement. We don’t need some unknown DJ explaining how his eccentric life-style fits BlackBerry. Or for that part how some broke ass bike messenger uses BBM to meet up after work with his fellow broke as messenger friends.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]
Apple nails this. They show “real” people using their products in “real” ways.

Conclusion:

The bottom line here is simple. RIM has a ton of ways to save their company and right this ship. The only question is whether or not they’ll be able to do any of these things. RIM has shown that over the years they’ll make the wrong choice despite what seems obvious to the rest of us.

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AT&T has always been the carrier known to get the latest Blackberry phones previously, but now Sprint is getting some flagship devices from RIM this fall, the Bold 9930 and the Torch 9850. Both phones will be sporting RIM’s latest iteration of their OS Blackberry 7.

The new Bold is Blackberry’s thinnest smartphone to date coming in at 10.5MM thick and sports the famous physical QWERTY keyboard that most Blackberry owners have been known to love. The newest Torch has the biggest screen that has been on a Blackberry phone to date at 3.7 inches.

These phones processors have been pushed up to 1.2GHZ and have Liquid Graphics Technology for fast and smooth performance and very responsive touchscreen. It sounds like Blackberry is pushing the right way in this new hardware but it is more of the same. Is this what they need paired with Sprint and other carriers to stay prevalent in the game?

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This week Nic and Liz dive into a ton of stuff. They finish it off with a long discussion about something or other…you’ll see! Show notes after the break.

Nintendo posts first quarterly operating loss; 3DS now just $169.99

Internet as hard to give up as cigarettes, liquor, study says

Remote unlock and start for cars hacked

China shuts down two fake Apple Stores

Spotify sued by PacketVideo for patent infringement

“Linking is not a crime”: Czech Pirate Party declares war on Big Content

Rogue academic downloader busted by MIT webcam stakeout

Google wants e-mail in Android suit redacted

Facebook to pay hackers for bugs

Petition to revive Oscar the Grouch trash-can utility in OS X Lion

AT&T to throttle smartphone data starting October 1st

Hulu sued for patent infringement

Italian cyber-crime police hacked in AntiSec attack

http://m.lifehacker.com/5825746/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-internet-snooping-bill-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

FBI working from list of top 1,000 protestors in Anonymous raids

Police arrest 19-year old LulzSec hacker ‘Topiary’

Ultimate hack: LulzSec may have duped British authorities into  arresting innocent man

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This week we cover a wide range of topics. Apple stores being faked, hackers being hacked, and Wonderkind being stupid. It’s the After Party Episode 33 and it awesome!

Show Notes After the break…
RIP Amy Winehouse

Apple

Some members of Apple’s board of directors have informally discussed a possible CEO successor to Steve Jobs, according to the WSJ’s “people familiar with the matter.” Jobs called the rumor “hogwash.”

Fake Apple Store customers furious, employees don’t care

Google

Google+ will be squeezed out of social world, says LinkedIn CEO
Judge blasts Google/Oracle over damages estimates in patent dispute
Google: Sun offered to license Java for $100M
Security experts knock Google on PC infection warnings
Google Labs is set to shut down as the search giant refocuses its product development efforts. Some Labs experiments will be terminated, others will be integrated into products.

Hacking

Former Reddit co-owner arrested for excessive JSTOR downloads

House panel approves data breach notification bill

Anonymous is apparently branching out into social networking. After being rejected by Google+, a team is working to develop “AnonPlus”, a social network to allow anons to create a community free of censorship.

The FBI has raided three addresses in New York, looking for hackers belonging to the Anonymous group. Agents have seized computers claimed to have been involved in distributed denial of service attacks against several corporations.

Big Content’s latest antipiracy weapon: extradition

NBA star Wade goes after alleged Texas hackers

General

Microsoft is offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information that leads to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person or people behind the Rustock botnet.

Calif. man gets 4 years for stalking on Facebook

The BlackBerry PlayBook has become the first tablet certified for use by government employees.

After poor sales, RIM pushing for Android apps on the PlayBook

Lighter Side

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/revolting/yogurt-semen-indictment-076391
http://consumerist.com/2011/02/yep-there-was-semen-in-the-yogurt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejaculation

http://www.sickchirpse.com/2011/07/19/real-life-peter-pan-the-woman-who-refuses-to-grow-up/

Not to be left in behind, Best Buy has announced “Best Buy Cloud Music”, their very own streaming cloud service. It works very much like Amazon Mp3 where you install an app on your Mac or PC, it combs your iTunes music library and uploads it to the cloud. If you don’t use iTunes, the service can not snag your music. Best Buy also seems to be using a matching style upload so it does not have to manually upload every track individually. There is two account choices, “Lite” and “Premium, which are free and $3.99 respectively. The free account will get you web only listening from a browser, where the Premium plan will enable you to stream to a mobile device. As far as storage and what the “Premium Services” get you, are still unknown. A curious thing to note, Best Buy indicates on the site that premium services are not available to iOS devices. Not sure what that is about, but we will keep you updated!

via [BGR]

VIc, Nic, and Donny hold it down while the Boss Guru is off saving the world. The guys talk US broadband woes, Verizon data plans, RIM Failbook, Google cock blocking rooted phones, and much much more!

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Bill restricting municipal broadband

US Lag behinds in broadband adoption

Verizon Killing Data Plans this Summer; No LTE on iPhone 5?

Playbook misses targets and has high returns

Microsoft Gives free X360 with PC purchase

Google Blocking Movie Rentals on Rooted devices

1.6 mil WP7 devices sold so far

Nokia WP7 will feature dual-core CPUs

AT&T Demos LTE – 28.8Mbps down

Discussion

• What will happen to Sprint if T-Mobile/AT&T acquisition is approved?
  • Buyout?
  • Sprint will benefit?

Guru Gotta Have It
Donny – NBA Jam iOS
Nic – VitalPlayer + aDownloader + iMediaShare = Angry Guru TV

The Gangsta…..er Gadget Gurus are back with another podcast for your ear drums! This week the Gurus cover privacy, Twitter buying Tweetdeck, mobile phone battery life, iOS multitasking, and the Blackberry Playbook.

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